Influences of specific surfactant structures on biohydrogen production from oily wastewater in batch and continuous anaerobic dark fermentation

Abstract

Residual oil in palm oil mill effluent (POME) poses difficulties in its treatment chain. Non-ionic surfactants containing different hydrophobic tail structures and their optimal concentrations were evaluated for effectiveness in biohydrogen production. By adding the surfactants at their critical micelle concentration in synthetic oily wastewater, the maximal H₂ yield was increased by 2.2 and 3.5 times for Triton X-100 and Tergitol 15-S-9, respectively, compared to the control. Using real POME, the supplemental Tergitol 15-S-9 resulted in a 56.4 % improvement in H₂ production. For continuous digestion studies, pure POME and Tergitol 15-S-9 supplemented POME (sPOME) were fed to thermophilic anaerobic sequencing batch reactors (ASBRs) under hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 32-12.5 days. Optimally at HRT 19 days, H₂ content in the biogas from sPOME-fed ASBR was noticeably higher, which gave a superior yield of 203.4 mLH₂/gCOD_removed (+15 %).

Keywords: Anaerobic fermentation; Emulsification; Hydrogen yield; Non-ionic surfactant; Palm oil mill effluent.